1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns the use of fats to suppress the unpleasant mouthfeel of functional ingredients in hard confectionery compositions. More specifically it concerns the use of saturated fats or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils to suppress the unpleasant mouthfeel of botanicals in hard boiled candy or hard gum compositions. It further concerns the use of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils to suppress the unpleasant mouthfeel of minerals and their salts in hard boiled candy compositions.
2. Background of the Invention
Functional ingredients, also known as nutraceuticals, are those food ingredients which generally provide therapeutic benefits when consumed in the diet. A drawback with the use of functional ingredients such as the botanicals, minerals and mineral salts, is their unpleasant mouthfeel when orally ingested, usually an unpleasant tingling sensation or astringency.
The art teaches methods for masking the unpleasant mouthfeel of the mineral zinc. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,425,325, 4,758,439, 4,684,528, 4,339,432 and 4,416,867 all teach reduction of the astringency of zinc in oral compositions by addition of glycine or other select amino acids. EP 0,251,542 uses polyoxyethylene hydrogenated castor oil (polymerized castor oil) to mask zinc and U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,970 uses anethole. U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,944 teaches reduction of astringency of zinc by dissolving zinc salt in an aqueous polyphosphate solution. U.S. Pat. No. 5,095,035 uses a sweet pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,416 teaches coating zinc with a hydrophillic layer followed by a hydrophobic layer selected from fats and waxes. The resultant product is a powder or granulate.
The coating of pharmaceuticals in general with hydrophobic materials, especially lipids, with or without other materials to mask unpleasant mouthfeel, is taught in the art. These systems are generally directed toward providing coated particles of the pharmaceutical which can then be used in quick delivery formulations such as liquid suspensions, quick dissolve tablets, capsules, syrups and the like. The coatings prevent release of the pharmaceutical until it has passed from the oral cavity into the gut. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,498,447, 4,865,851, 5,635,200, 4,953,247, 5,597,844, 5,320,848 and 5,494,681, Japanese Patents 7242568 and 08333243, and WO Patent Publications 94/05260, 96/10993 and 97/03656 all concern these methods of masking mouthfeel and/or providing stability until the pharmaceutical reaches the gut.
Although functional ingredients have been provided in various delivery forms by those skilled in the dietary supplement and food arts, the prior art delivery forms have not satisfactorily met the consumer need to be both efficacious and have an acceptable taste for oral ingestion, particularly when delivered to the oral cavity. It would be desirable to provide the consumer with a food product, particularly with a hard confectionery product, containing functional ingredients wherein the unpleasant mouthfeel of the functional ingredient has been substantially reduced. It would be desirable to provide the consumer with a hard confectionery product which is both efficacious and have an acceptable taste.